Safa stops short of conceding SA football development failure

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Mongezi Mtati

According to the Citypress website, The South African Football Association (Safa) leadership has stopped short of conceding failure in developing South African football - it will take hard work and sweat for the Association to realise its big dream of turning things around.

The recent redeployment of chief executive officer Robin Petersen to set up the Safa Development Agency is a last-ditch attempt to revive local football.

Safa President Kirsten Nematandani said local junior teams' failure to qualify for CAF championships was a reflection of the level of the country's development. Last weekend the national Under-17 team lost out to Ghana in the CAF African Youth Championship qualifier. Earlier the Under-20's failed to book a place at the youth championship too. The national Under-23 failed to qualify for last year's London Olympic Games, while Bafana Bafana have not played in three consecutive Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, since 2008.

Recently, the Citypress website says, the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (Mistra) pointed out in a report that there are poor levels of investment in youth football development, which resulted in the lack of a clear and regulated system. "It is time we went back to the drawing board and started from scratch," Nematandani said.

Read the full article on www.citypress.co.za.